This invention relates to cloches and to cloche frames.
In the past, cloches formed by placing a covering sheet or film over suitably located sections of an inverted U-shaped frame have had problems with securing the covering to the frame in a manner which will hold the covering satisfactorily in place and minimise the covering's tendency to become dislodged and/or tear in adverse weather conditions. Traditional methods have tended to be somewhat time consuming, labour intensive and difficult to erect, maintain and dismantle. These problems have reduced the effective life of the covering. Joining more than one length of sheeting to form a covering has also been difficult.
Earlier U.S. patent specifications relating to cloches are U.S. Pat. Nos. 558,346 (Boyd), 1,692,229 (Smith), 1,766,455 (Rights et al), 1,910,501 (Schindler), 2,226,812 (Goldberg), 3,088,244 (Commisso), 3,165,110 (Brooks), 3,240,217 (Bird et al), 3,791,077 (Ventimiglia) and 3,800,468 (de Graff). Other patent specification are British specification Nos. 1192591 (Ender), 1227863 (Sovap SA), 1276171 (Bush Plastics Ltd), French specification Nos. 1325984 (di Galante), 2241671 (Richel) and German specification No. 2557699 (Rup). None of these, however, have overcome all of the difficulties to which the present invention is addressed.
Some of these earlier inventions have been partially successful in overcoming some of the above mentioned problems but often the means of overcoming these problems have been cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive.
The object of the present invention is to provide a means of going some way towards reducing these problems.